NOTES ON THE CANID® OF THE WHITE RIVER OLIGOCENE. 599 
that of the modern dogs, being much longer, stouter and in every way better developed ; 
it was not, perhaps, quite so long proportionately as in Herpestes, but nearly so. This, 
however, is a primitive feature, which is common to the greater part of the earlier carni- 
vores and ungulates, and is even more conspicuous in Daphenus than in Cynodictis, 
while the White River Machairodonts, Dinictis and Hoplophoneus, have very long and 
massive tails. 
The limbs, though not so long proportionately as in the recent dogs, are much more 
so than in the John Day species, C. geismarianus, the hind legs being especially elon- 
gate. The scapula is not at all canine in character, being relatively very large and 
having the broad blade and irregularly curved coracoid border of the viverrines ; the 
great length of the acromion and the unusual size of the metacromion are peculiar. 
The humerus is short but quite heavy, and with its low trochlea, prominent deltoid and 
supinator ridges, and large epicondyle and epicondylar foramen, has an exceedingly 
viverrine appearance. The ulna and radius are relatively short and slender, and the 
discoidal head of the latter shows that the power of rotating the manus had been but 
little diminished; the great styloid process of the radius is very characteristic. The 
‘arpus 1s low and the metacarpals are exceedingly short and weak, resembling in their 
proportions those of Paradoxurus. The phalanges are elongate and the claws sharp 
and compressed. 
The pelvis has a viverrine appearance in its shape and in the elongation of its 
posterior portion, while the os penis resembles that of the mustelines in size and curya- 
ture. The femur is long and the tibia is somewhat longer than the femur, bearing much 
the same relation to that bone as in Canis, while the fibula is much stouter than in the mod- 
ern genus. The pes is far larger in all its dimensions than the manus, the difference in 
size between the two being much greater than in Canis. It is often exceedingly difficult 
to determine from the bones alone whether a given animal was plantigrade or digiti- 
grade in gait, but from the resemblance of the limb and foot bones of Cynodictis to those 
of the civets, it seems very probable that the former had a similar semiplantigrade gait. 
The John Day species, C. geismarianus, is considerably larger than the White River 
forms, but resembled the latter in proportions. Cope says of it: “ Although the skull 
and pelvis of this species have about the size of those of the fisher, the vertebrae and 
humerus are more slender and the anterior foot is decidedly smaller. It is probable that 
the Galecynus [7. e., Cynodictis] geismarianus resembled a large Herpestes in general pro- 
portions rather than a Canis. It stood lower on the legs than a fox and had as slender 
a body as the most ‘ vermiform ’ of the weasels, the elongation being most marked in the 
region posterior to the thorax. The tail was evidently as long as in the Ichneumons. 
Its carnivorous propensities were as well developed as in any of the species mentioned, 
A, B: & VO, SOX, DW: 
